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HOCKEY; Giguère Proves He Can Handle Pressure

Athletes can literally pass the baton or figuratively hand over the torch. In the case of Anaheim's Jean-Sébastien Giguère, there was both symbolic and practical significance in a goalie stick given to him by Patrick Roy.

At the time, Giguère was 12 years old and playing for a Peewee team north of Montreal. Roy was the Canadiens' star goaltender. Giguère, who will turn 26 next month, took the gift seriously.

''I played with it for the rest of the season,'' said Giguère, now the Mighty Ducks' star goaltender.''We won everything with it. It was kind of a lucky stick. It broke about five times. I glued it back, put a lot of tape on it. It was a great gift. I think my parents still have it in their basement.''

Roy, now contemplating retirement from the Colorado Avalanche, has also given less tangible gifts to French-Canadian goalies from Quebec. He has inspired a generation from the province that includes the Devils' Martin Brodeur and the Senators' Patrick Lalime, who are facing each other in the Eastern Conference finas.

In Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, Giguère made 39 saves Saturday to help Anaheim to a 1-0 double-overtime victory over Minnesota. It was his second shutout of the playoffs, and it increased his scoreless streak in overtime to 160 minutes 46 seconds, just 2:10 short of the record Roy set in 1997. Game 2 of the four-of-seven-game series is in Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Monday night.

Giguère has emerged this spring for a team that had missed the playoffs the previous three seasons and had won only one round in its 10-year history. He led the Ducks to upsets over Detroit and Dallas in the first two rounds by standing square to the shooters and dropping, when necessary, into the butterfly position, with knees on the ice and limbs extended outward.

He learned his fundamentals as a child at the goaltending school of François Allaire, who now travels with the Ducks as a goaltending consultant. After being drafted by Hartford in the first round in 1995, Giguère moved around through the minor leagues and also to Calgary before gradually developing over the last three seasons in the relative anonymity of Anaheim.

''Obviously, we're not a hockey hotbed,'' Giguère said of the Ducks' home south of Los Angeles in sprawling Orange County. ''That's fine. Sometimes, it's better that way. You get to develop as a young guy without having the media pressure. You just go out there and play and you don't have to worry about anything.''

He did not seem worried on Saturday when he made a spectacular stick save on Marian Gaborik, lunging across the crease to stab the puck before it crossed the goal line during a Wild power play in the second period. Giguère said it was a lucky save. There was both luck and skill on a play in the first overtime when Giguère chased a loose puck toward the blue line, fell on it, looked around and passed with his hand to a teammate.

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''It was kind of a confusing play,'' Giguère said. ''I didn't know where everybody was. Obviously, I can't freeze the puck there. I had to move it right away or I would have got two minutes for sure.''

Ducks General Manager Bryan Murray was asked about renewed suggestions, this time from the Wild's Antti Laaksonen, that Giguère is using oversized pads. ''Every piece of equipment is measured twice a year and before the playoffs started,'' Murray said, adding that a violator risked a fine of $100,000 and suspension from the next game.

Giguère, asked similar questions, said: ''My pads are legal. What can I say?''

Giguère said people should not think the Ducks are a fluke because they were seeded seventh among eight Western qualifiers. ''We deserve to be here -- this is not a lucky thing, this is not a team being in the bubble,'' he said, adding similar praise for the sixth-seeded Wild.

Giguère's play has taken attention and pressure away from Paul Kariya, who has three goals and three assists.

''He's just good,'' Kariya said of Giguère. ''He makes it look easy because of his positioning and his technique. Jiggy's got a great personality. He's very easygoing. He's not a typical goaltender. He's one of the guys. No eccentric things about him.''

Allaire, a goalie consultant, said that Giguère was 12 when he began attending his goalie school.

''After a while, a guy understands,'' Allaire said. ''I think the school is good for technique, but I think it's more important the time you spend that makes the difference.''

Allaire said that Giguère told him about the gift of Roy's stick and said ''that was a good start for him.'' Perhaps, if Giguère has time to attend Allaire's summer school this year, he can bring a few extra sticks, pass them to a few young students and hand down a powerful tradition.